The Sweet Reward of Saying Thanks

November 22, 2016

During the holiday season, we often jump from Halloween right to Christmas or New Year’s and simply view Thanksgiving as the day we eat too much – and for me, watch the Dallas Cowboys game. (I’m still a Chiefs fan, but when you grow up before cable TV you liked the team you could watch.)

It’s unlikely you start your customer communication with politics or religion. The subjects are too volatile for most businesses to discuss. That’s why, as a business, it seems like Thanksgiving is the one holiday we should focus on.

At our house, every month, we get a box of Cheryl’s Cookies. They usually don’t last long, especially with kids, but they are just cookies. Very good cookies, but still just cookies. Unlike our B2B clients, where customers spend thousands, sometimes millions of dollars, these cookies cost us less than $20 a month.

We recently received an overnight envelope at our house from Cheryl’s. It clearly wasn’t our normal box so I opened it (a highly valued activity at my house). What did I find? A very simple message: Thank you. No sales message. Not a coupon for a repeat order. No offer to upgrade. A note that simply said, “Thank you.”

Thankfully, they also sent a small box that included a single cookie.

So what does this have to do with B2B or building materials marketing? It was a reminder to me that we sometimes forget to simply say “thank you” to our customers, our clients, our employees or other people we interact with during our work life.

Why do we overcomplicate the process of simply saying “thank you” during this time of the year? Is it because we don’t care about our customers? I don’t think so. Is it because we are a business and businesses aren’t “warm and fuzzy?” Possibly or have we simply forgotten that regardless of our roles or interactions, we are still just another human whose plate is too full, whose day isn’t long enough and who might just be taken for granted? There may be something to that.

Yes, we are in Business to Business marketing, but we are still people to people and the old adage that you do business with people you know, like and trust remains true.

This year, don’t forget this simple act of a thank you to the people in your life. While trying to cut that single cookie into four equal parts for my family was not easy, we certainly appreciated the message and your employees, co-workers and especially your customers will, too.

So as we start the holiday season, I want to, along with the entire ER Marketing team, say thanks to you – our friends, our suppliers, our employees, our readers and especially our clients.